The other menu installed with PDFMaker is the Acrobat Comments menu. The commands in the menu address merging your PDF comments back into the original Microsoft Word document. The menu items are as follows:

Import Comments from Acrobat. This is a round trip process—that is to say you need to start with an Microsoft Word document, send it out to be reviewed, and then merge the received comments back into the Word file. In addition, when you created the PDF file in the first place, you must use PDFMaker.

When you select the menu item, the Import Comments from Adobe Acrobat help window opens. Read the helpful tips on how to import comments and click OK to proceed. The next dialog box that opens is Import Comments from Adobe Acrobat.

In the dialog box, you make choices for what files to select, what comments to import, and whether you want to filter the comments.

Continue Integration Process. This continues the integration of PDF comments in the Word document for text edits such as inserts and deletions. If review tracking is on, you can merge tracked changes.

Accept All Changes in Document. After the comment integration, select this menu command to accept the comments. Comments such as text marked for deletion are deleted; text marked with insertion adds the inserted comments, and so on.

Delete All Comments in Document. All comments imported from the PDF document are deleted from the Word file.

Reviewing Toolbar. This toggles the Microsoft Word Reviewing toolbar on and off. To hide the tools, uncheck the command by selecting it in the menu.

Show Instructions. The dialog box that opens when you choose the Import Comments from Acrobat command (see the first bullet in this list) also opens when you choose the Show Instructions menu command.

To make the process for importing comments from Acrobat (or Exporting comments from Acrobat to Word), take a look at the steps that follow, which describe a workflow for exchanging comments in Word and PDF documents.

Convert a Word document to PDF using the PDFMaker Convert to Adobe PDF Tool. Be certain to use the PDFMaker to convert your Word file to PDF.

Mark up the PDF file in Acrobat using the Comment & Markup tools. Be certain to use the Text Edits tools in the Comment & Markup toolbar to comment on the PDF file. Text Edit comments get merged directly into the Microsoft word document stream, whereas other comments are just applied as note comments in Word.

Initiate an export of comments to Word. You can export comments from Acrobat to Word or Import comments in Word from a PDF file. In Acrobat you use the Comments >> Export Comments to Word menu command. In Word you use the Acrobat Comments >> Import Comments from Acrobat menu command.

Either menu selection opens the Import Comments from Adobe Acrobat dialog box. If you start in Acrobat, Microsoft Word is launched and the Import Comments from Adobe Acrobat Wizard is handled from within Word. The first pane describes the process for integrating your PDF comments back to a Word document. Click OK after reading the help information.

Choose files and comment types. The second pane in the Import Comments from Adobe Acrobat Wizard provides options to choose your files and select the comment types you want to import. Click the first Browse button to select the PDF file containing your comments.

Click the second Browse button to select the Word file. Note that you must import comments from a PDF created from the Word file you intend to use for your comment imports. Below the Choose Files area in the first wizard pane is the Select Comment Types to Import.

If you want all comments imported, click the All Comments radio button. Other options you have are shown in Figure above. The last item in the first wizard pane is an option to turn on the Track Changes feature in Word. If you want your changes to be tracked and noted, check this box.

Import the comments. Click Next and your comments are imported into the Word document. You should see the Successful Import dialog box open.

Integrate Text Edits. Click the Integrate Text Edits button if you used the Text Edits tools in Acrobat to make comments. Another dialog box opens where you can selectively choose comments to integrate or click the Apply All Remaining button to integrate all Text Edits. Click Done after integrating comments and the comment imports are completed.

If you want to selectively import comments, you can filter the imported comments by selecting the Apply Custom Filters to Comments radio button in the Import Comments from Acrobat wizard pane. Click this radio button and click continue to open the Filter Comments pane.

In the Filter Comments pane you can select comments by authors you want to import, types of comments to import, and comments by status. Make the selections you want for importing comments and click OK.

The comments are imported into the Word file and the Successful Import dialog box opens where you can view the list of those comments imported. Once you complete importing comments, you can use the Reviewing toolbar tools to accept or reject comments. The comments are noted with callouts for easy recognition while reviewing the document in Word.